Sunday, July 16, 2017

Somehow I got registered for the Dances With Dirt Devil's Lake 50K. Well, I guess I know how it happened. My youngest brother Chris, who had done the marathon at Devil's Lake twice, and who lives in Wisconsin, asked me if I'd like to come out and run it with him. We've met up to do races before, some of them described elsewhere in this blog.
Chris has done at least a dozen marathons, but no ultra marathons. He was considering the 50K, I think, and I had always said that a 50K is really in the same category as a marathon, like a ten mile race is in the same category as a half marathon.
But then, as I said in an earlier post in this blog, I ran the Relay Del Sol with a team of diabetic runners, and got inspired.
One of the things I got inspired to do was to quick sign up for the 50K at Devil's Lake and call Chris. "Hey, Chris, I registered for the 50K. You better sign up before it fills up!"

So Chris and I did the 50K last weekend. No big deal.

Even death?

We were only concerned about finishing. We were both under-trained. Chris continually said he was doing less than I was, but that's what he always does. Then usually he runs my butt off on race day.
Thankfully, that didn't happen this time. Chris really was as out of shape as I was.
We had to beat the cutoff by reaching the 25 mile point before 1 PM, 7:30 after the 5:30 AM start. We did it with minutes to spare, then walked it in.

We went all over the country you see in the background.

Overall, a nice trek through beautiful country with good company. We ran a lot at first, but walked the steep hills from the beginning, then every hill, then after the cutoff, we just walked.

Dirt dancing legs.

My blood sugar behaved. It was a little high through the early miles, but came down to normal and never got low.

I am now inspired to harden myself up at the Harding Hustle next week.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A couple of weeks ago, I was just getting ready to leave the gym, stuffing my sweaty shirt into my bag in the locker room, when this guy, Burt, came over and said, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what's that thing on your arm?"

Actual photo of that thing on my arm

I said, "I don't mind you asking, but it's a long story, and you wouldn't believe it anyway."
He seemed amused, even though I wasn't trying to be funny. He kind of laughed and said, "Well, that just makes me more curious!"
I said, "Look, if I tell you what I know, you won't believe me, and you still won't know what it is."
Now his brow furrowed. I couldn't tell if his face was red because of his workout, or because he was getting pissed off at me.
"I'll believe you! Just tell me!"
"Then you'll just drop the subject and leave me alone?"
"Sure."
So I told him the story.
"OK. I was walking the dog one night, and suddenly I was surrounded by a bright light shining down from the sky. I looked up toward the source of the light, but it was so blindingly bright, I couldn't see any details. I could see that it was coming closer and closer, and as it did, I started to hear a high-pitched noise getting louder and louder... then I blacked out.
When I came to, it was hours later, in the early morning, before dawn. I was a mile away, lying in an empty parking lot, and I had this thing on my arm.
I knew where I was, so I was able to walk home. My dog was on the porch, all right, but shivering with fright.
Anyway, I don't know what it is, but that's how it got there."
"Why don't you just pull it off then?" He asked, clearly thinking I was pulling his leg.
"Whenever I think about doing something like that, a voice in my head says, 'DO NOT REMOVE THE TRACKING DEVICE.' and I forget about it. It really doesn't bother me."
"How about if I pull it off for you?" Burt was obviously angry now.
"Whenever someone starts to do that, I black out again. Please don't do that."
"Oh, so you do this a lot?" He asked, moving closer.
"I'm starting to hear that high-pitched noise. Please don't..."
Then I blacked out.
I came back to consciousness miles away, in the woods, with a shovel in my hands, standing on a mound of freshly turned earth. I was able to follow my footprints back to my car. They were deep footprints, as if I had been carrying something heavy. My phone was there, so I figured out where I was and drove home.
But I would like to know what happened when I blacked out. I would ask Burt, but I haven't seen him around the gym for a couple of weeks.

Monday, April 24, 2017

First post on this blog in almost 5 years. I'm not sure who will notice this. The main reason I'm posting here is I'd like to write a little about an upcoming event, the St. George Marathon, and leave it here and link to it from Twitter and Facebook.

Type One Run has a few members going to the 2017 St. George Marathon, October 7, and is asking other interested runners with type 1 diabetes to register and run it with us.

In the time since I last posted here, four and a half years, I ran 16 more marathons. Sadly, they were all terribly slow, mostly because I haven't trained properly.

Here are the details:

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6:37:19

15:10

2/7/2016

126

CA

Surf City Marathon

5:22:53

12:20

10/4/2015

154

MN

Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon

5:21:36

12:17

5/3/2015

64

CA

OC Marathon

6:29:49

12:35

2/28/2015

27

CA

Orange Curtain 50K

5:06:01

11:41

2/1/2015

85

CA

Surf City Marathon

7:46:08

17:47

11/8/2014

27

CA

Catalina Island Eco Marathon

5:26:18

12:27

10/12/2014

35

CA

Long Beach Marathon

5:49:38

13:21

9/7/2014

84

CA

Ventura Marathon

5:51:10

13:25

6/15/2014

42

CA

Fathers Day Marathon*

5:30:51

12:38

5/4/2014

44

CA

OC Marathon

9:01:21

20:39

3/23/2014

35

NM

Bataan Death March Marathon

5:27:15

12:30

2/16/2014

28

CA

Majestic Marathon*

5:37:11

12:52

1/19/2014

133

CA

Carlsbad Marathon

5:35:07

12:47

9/8/2013

224

CA

Ventura Marathon

5:55:57

13:35

1/27/2013

77

CA

Carlsbad Marathon

6:06:03

13:59

11/11/2012

294

CA

Malibu Marathon

That number between the date and the state in my spreadsheet is "days between", as in days between marathons. Since as you can see, the last marathon was February of 2016, and I'm not registered for another until July, the next "days between" number will be the highest ever. I've gone more than a year without running a marathon.

But just in time I've gotten inspired by this great group, Type One Run. I was incredibly fortunate to meet Craig Stubing, founder of Type One Run, at a JDRF Summit in Pasadena. We spoke briefly about running and the fact that Type One Run had a team in the Ragnar SoCal Relay.
Then a week later, I got an email saying that one of their runners had dropped out, and asking if I would like to join. Of course I would!

I've had this experience of being on an overnight relay with a team of diabetics four times now, and I would recommend it to anyone dealing with this disease.
My experience with Type One Run was relentlessly positive and inspiring. And it reminded me of a lot of things I've been missing in my life recently.

OK. A couple of things to explain in that list of marathons:
The Catalina Eco Marathon is just really, really tough, especially for a fat old, out of shape diabetic.

I did the Bataan Death March Marathon for my second time in 2014, but this time my youngest brother Chris did it with me, and we did it in the "Heavy" category, meaning we wore 35 pound backpacks. That is also a tough marathon, even without a pack, but not quite like Catalina Eco.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Earlier this week I was shopping in a local franchise of a nationwide vitamin store chain, and the saleswoman there asked me about my tee shirt. I was wearing a "Team Diabetes" shirt from a marathon several years ago.
The vitamin store woman told me that her mother was a type 1 diabetic "Red Strider" and that they were going to do the Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes together in Griffith Park on October 27th.
We had a nice talk about diabetes-related events. I told her I couldn't do the event in Griffith Park in LA because I was planning to go to the TCOYD Conference and Health Expo in San Diego. I told her about Insulindependence and some of the events I've been involved in with that organization.
So then the guy at the cash register said, "You know another web site you should check out is ..."
And he helpfully told me about a raw food diet web site, and assured me that it was helpful to many diabetics.
I started to explain that I was type 1, and he said he knew about type 1 and type 2 and the difference. He didn't seem totally ignorant. But as I tried to tell him that diet can only do so much, he would agree, then start telling me how good this raw food diet is.
So I started to tell him about this guy from Phoenix, a type 1 diabetic who earlier this year was convinced that a spiritual healer could cure him with a drastically modified diet, herbal detox, reducing his insulin...
While I told this story, the vitamin store dude kept saying, "Yeah!" "Uh huh." like it all made sense and sounded right to him.
I knew he wasn't getting the point of the story, but the look of shock on his face was so profound it shocked me when I finally said, "... then he died."
"He died?!"
"Yeah, he died."
Yes, vitamin store dude, he died. Yes, this is serious.
No, I can't cure myself by eating raw food.
I think the saleswoman smiled. She may have tried to have a talk about diabetes with this guy before.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Hey, reader,
I've been doing a bit of running lately, but not enough. When I get out there, I'm having fun, so I'm confident that I'll be able to build up some more mileage before meeting up with the Insulindependence crowd at the Carlsbad Marathon, which is the next event in which I'm sure I'll participate.
But today I'm just going to share a report on the diabetes gear I take with me on runs.

Glucose tablets, or some source of quick carbohydrates:

These are the store brand glucose tablets. Glucolift makes a tastier, all-natural alternative, but this is what I have right now.

Some ID, indicating that you are diabetic:

This is my MedicAlert ID. I started with the MedicAlert Foundation in 1974, so I'm not going to change now.

A meter:

OneTouch Ultra Mini meter, lancet device, a few strips in an old Listerine Strips container, a piece of tech fiber cloth (like ShamWow) and plastic bag to hold it all.

A meter is so much smaller than so many less important things people run with, there's really no excuse for not carrying one except if you're not going far. The little piece of cloth is for those few times when it might be necessary to dry your fingers to get a test.

An infusion site:

What a fat model I had pose for these pictures, huh?

An insulin pump:

My Animas Ping.

My DexCom sensor and transmitter:

That's the back of my arm near my shoulder.

My DexCom receiver:

It's in an iPhone arm band wrapped around my forearm. I can see my blood sugar trend as easily as the time on my watch.

Then of course there are all of the ordinary runner things, a watch, maybe some Gu, some water...
It does take some organization sometimes to get out the door.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

OK. Forget that last post. Let's talk about running.
Saturday I ran up the Chumash Trail to Rocky Peak Road and back from my house. It was pretty awesome. Here's the view back toward Simi Valley from the trail:

So I looked at this run on Google maps before. I tried to get up to Rocky Peak Road a couple of weeks ago, but I had wasted too much energy and time running around on trails which turned out not to be going in the right direction, and it was hot, and I ran out of water. So I turned around without reaching my objective. Twice. On two different days.
But on Saturday I went back up there with a Camelbak and a water bottle, and of course my meter, glucose tablets, insulin pump, Gu, all the trappings of a diabetic runner.
But I kept going, up and up and up, until I finally had to ask myself, "Is Rocky Peak a dirt road?" Of course it is. As I determined later, Rocky Peak Road is a dirt road only a little bit more substantial than the Chumash Trail, and I ran about a mile on it before I headed back for home.

The postscript today is that everyone should really check out 1run.org. Type 1 diabetic runner Dave Masiuk is running across the USA.
It's pretty clear to me that he and I have different perspectives, but he's doing something fantastic, and I'm very impressed.